For a bizarre hour these are virtually the only words I hear. After half an hour, the man tells us to look at the walls, floor and ceiling and imagine them saying to us: "You have arrived."

We sit in silence for five minutes. Then it begins again - 30 more minutes of nothing except the man repeating: "Feel your chair. Thank you. Look at the front wall. Thank you."

…

I close my eyes as he asks me to regress to a negative incident in my life that I feel comfortable confronting. I'm encouraged to visualise everything around me and put myself back in space and time.

Scientologists believe this will "clear the engram" and I will have no more of the negative memories.

Afterwards I feel shaken, especially when I realise the session lasted one hour and 30 minutes - I'd guessed it was 30 minutes maximum.

It was an experience I won't volunteer for again. I didn't feel in danger at any point but it was deeply unsettling. By 6pm on my final day I am desperate to leave.

If this is true it seems to me like they are playing a dangerous game - it’s psychotherapy practiced by someone not necessarily qualified in the subject. I should think there are severe dangers in this, especially if you are dealing with people who have suffered genuine trauma in their lives and who have real psychological problems. Unfortunately those people are probably the ones least able to deal with Scientology’s manipulation, and most likely to fall under its spell.

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That doesn't look like psychotherapy. It looks like psychological abuse, plain and simple. It's obvious a cult. They need to make people feel unsettled so they can give them a new reality modelled in a way that will keep the money flowing into scientology or $cientology, if you like.

Psyops is an example of how people have studied psychology to manipulate people, NOT to help them feel better. Same could be said about sales and advertising techniques, in general.

It's not only brainwashing, it has a dual purpose. The process is also intelligence gathering. Those "negative incidents" the victims are encouraged to recount are recorded and filed so that scientology has "dirt" on any member who decides to leave, revolt, or criticize the cult.

It's actually even more interesting than that if you focus on the 'Thetan' aspect of it and the fact that their regular 'services' are all written material from Hubbard's collection. Please remember 3 things about Hubbard:

1. Sci-Fi writer who tried to reinvent psychology with Dianetics, but his 'clear' (or cured) example buckled under investigation. He then took time as a hermit and reinvented it as Scientology (people can't question religion)

2. Hubbard had periods of insanity or severe isolationism. There was one point where he didn't leave his mansion (paid for of course by his 'truth) for years, and simply had an aide take his dispatches to the world. Of course, he also didn't use fingernail clippers (had to be hard to type and write)

3. The belief is that the inner 'thetan' is exactly like in Battlefield Earth. Human bodies and minds with their 'engrams' are prisons for this 'superior master race' of aliens. Hubbard went so far as to impriosn a family member who could or would not let go of the engram that led to his homosexuality. In the long run, his (son I think) killed himself rather than live in a boat prison.

A few more fun facts:

- Scientologists were looking for their own country/land to purchase. This was discarded after the Jonestown Massacre as most countries did not trust weird religions. Instead, Hubbard and his closest followers set sail in a yacht, to live in international waters.

- There was a case in the '70s wherein several Scientologists were arrested for filching records from the US federal government. They were tried and convicted, but a seperation betwen these individuals and the institution was established by the courts

- In France, as well as other parts of Europe, Scientology has been refused religious status because each of the 'levels' requires pay-per-value (the theory is people appreciate what they spend money on more)

- On the other hand, if it works for people....

Interestingly I had dinner in London with a chap named Peter who was one of the main reps for Scientology in London - I think I may have known a bloke from the article.